Session 6

Theory: Representing images

Practical: Building on programming skills

Teaching KS3 Computing

Today’s session

5:00 – 6:00

Representing bitmapped images as data

Storage of files in memory

6.00 – 7.00

Building on programming skills

From the national curriculum- as last week

At KS3 students should be able to:

“understand how instructions are stored and executed within a computer system; understand how data of various types (including text, sounds and pictures) can be represented and manipulated digitally, in the form of binary digits”

Computing programme of study

Storing images

Bitmapped graphic Vector-based graphic(taken from http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/dida/graphics/bitmapvectorrev2.shtml)

Bit-mapped graphic

• Binary patterns are used to store graphics.

• In a bit-mapped system the image is divided up into a grid.

• Each cell in the grid is called a PIXEL (picture element).

A pixel is the smallest solid block of colour of an image.

One pixel

Activity 1: Bit-mapped graphic activity

Take a paper grid (choose easy or hard)

Shade in some squares to create a picture. Keep your picture a SECRET!

Then code in binary, 1 bit per pixel, one row at a time, left to right

NEXT

Separate the binary from the picture and put your name on it.

Swap with somebody else

NEXT

Use a new grid to draw the image from their picture and check with your swapped person that it’s correct!

Features of an image

Resolution

• The resolution of an image or screen is expressed as the number of pixels by row by the number of pixels per column.

• For example, an image with a resolution of 1024 by 798 pixels has 1024 798 pixels (817,152 pixels)

Colour depth• The number of bits used to represent

the colour of a single pixel in a bitmapped image.

• 1 bit colour means only 1 bit per pixel where 1 = black and 0 = white

• 2 bit colour means 2 bits per pixel and four colours represented by 00, 01, 10, 11

How many colours? …. Fill in the yellow gapsNumber of bits in a pixel

Possible values Number of colours

1 0, 1 2

00, 01, 10, 11 4

3 000, 001, 010, … etc. …. 111

0000, 0001, 0010, 0011, etc. …1111 16

5 00000, 00001, 00010, 00011, …. Etc. … 11111

64

8 00000000, 00000001, 00000010, … 11111111

16 0000000000000000, 000000000000000001, …. 1111111111111111

How big are image files ….?

Use these numbers to fill the gaps 4,473 894,784 341 256 640

1 GB represents _______________ web pages

1 GB would store _______________ pictures

1 GB would store _______________ plains of plain text

1 GB would store ________________ MP3 audio files

1GB would store _________________ books of 200 pages each

Computer memory

There are two kinds of computer memory:

1. Volatile

Contents are lost when the power is turned off

RAM (random access memory) is volatile

2. Non-Volatile

Contents are kept when there is no power

e.g. stored on a hard disk

Which computer has the best spec?

Compare RAM and hard disk size of each

advertised computer

Summary

Images and sound need to be represented in a way that they can be understood by the computer

Images can be stored as bitmaps or vector files

The smallest unit of a bitmap is a pixel

Compression methods can be used to make files smaller

When the computer is on, currently used files are stored in RAM

Long-term storage uses the hard disk

Next week: how the computer works

Break